#EspressøYourself

“Whatever people say don’t be afraid to speak out and espressøyourself”

This page is dedicated to the #EspressøYourself campaign in which I link a series of articles and posts connected to speaking openly and freely. This has different meanings and it is partly thought as something people who are in places around the world where there is no freedom of speech to those that even in ‘first world countries’ are afraid of coming out whether it is to talk about sexuality, mental health, illness in general or even just personal opinions on how the world should be.

After a year living in Sweden I have noticed that this is possibly the biggest difference between Swedish and southern Italian culture. The difficulty in calling ‘a spade a spade’ or openly criticising someone to their face as opposed to talking behind their backs is a problem that, although many will not admit to it, curses this otherwise pretty awesome society.

The choice of the hashtag #EspressøYourself is connected to the Italianised version of ‘express’ plus it connects to one of my biggest passions espresso coffee. The choice to use the Scandinavian letter “ø” (used in Danish and Norwegian) is to show that the ‘o’ of espresso is not that important in this case. The ø also underlines the connection between this hashtag and Scandinavia where, more so than many other cultures I have experienced or studied, the need to keep your head down and not say openly and directly what you think for fear of confrontation or ‘being different’ is very strong.

This campaign, hashtag and even the entireentrepreneurial concept of importing Italian espresso coffee would not have been developed if it had not been for a series of episodes in which lack of good communication and passive aggression made me determined to create this and make it work.

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